Man accused of killing good Samaritan who tried to help him after Minn. car crash

Father of 4 fatally shot while trying to help suspect involved in car crash

September 11, 2019 at 3:19 AM EDT - Updated September 11 at 6:27 AM

SAINT PAUL, Minn. (WCCO/CNN) - A 27-year-old man in Minnesota has been charged with the murder of a good Samaritan, who was fatally shot while responding to the scene of a car crash.

Lionel Eaton, 27, is charged with one count of second-degree murder by drive-by shooting and one count of third-degree murder.

Police say Eaton caused a chain-reaction crash Monday night in a neighborhood in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Neighbors who heard the crash, including 31-year-old Javier Sanmiguel Yanez, rushed out of their homes.

Javier Sanmiguel Yanez, a 31-year-old husband and father to four young children, was fatally shot while responding to the scene of a car crash in his neighborhood. (Source: Family photos/WCCO/CNN)

Yanez and several others began looking for the driver who had triggered the crash, which damaged at least four cars.

Neighbors say Eaton had climbed into the back of a hatchback after the crash. They thought he might have been injured, so they opened the hatch to check. That’s when the suspect allegedly began shooting from inside the car.

“We noticed he was in the back of the hatch. When the gentleman across the street tried to open the lever and asked him to get out, that is when he opened fire… That’s a monster to open fire on innocent people just trying to help everybody,” said a witness only identified as Maya.

Yanez, a husband and father to four young children, was fatally shot in the head.

"There was no reason for him to fire, none. No one was being aggressive towards him or anything like that,” said Charlie, a neighbor who was right next to Yanez when he was shot.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the victim’s family. It has already raised more than $25,000.

"This guy did exactly what I would want him to do, if I was injured in an accident. I'd want him to come to my aid, and he did exactly that. It's extremely sad that he paid for his life,” said Sgt. Mike Ernster with Saint Paul Police.

A good Samaritan is dead after he was shot while trying to help two drivers involved in a multi-vehicle crash at the intersection of Case and Edgerton at 10 p.m. Monday, Sept. 9.